COLLachs

During the past year we have lost a number of familiar faces: Katie Kennedy of Arinthluic; Peggie MacKinnon; Archibald MacLean; Donald Bremner, Angus Kennedy and Duncan MacKinnon. All were born and brought up on Coll and each has been laid to rest in the cemetery at Cill Ionnaig. The following pages are a small tribute to each of their lives

'Katie Arinthluic'

Katie was one of my nearest neighbours, though she lived about a mile along the shore from Hyne. On warm summer afternoons I'd walk over to see her, knowing that, as always, she'd he at home. Mick the dog would hark as I approached the isolated stone house and during all the years I visited, it and Katie were ever the same.

Her room had an ancient iron stove with an old-fashioned black kettle on top, a large dresser, its niches stuffed with papers and 'bits', well-worn chairs and a grand view of the empty bay. Katie always wore a long, grey dress with an apron over, wellies, a woolly hat pulled around her small, crinkled face.

In their total 'island-centredness' Katie and her brother Angus the fisherman, were thoroughly a part of the old Coll community that was already fading away when I first saw it in the 1960s and has practically vanished now.

In the distant past Katie had been to the mainland, but when I knew her she simply 'stayed put' in Arinthluic, her longest excursions being to the village shop and the Free Church. She lived quietly alone and seemed content that the modern world had passed her by. When I came, she'd make tea and we'd chat (about the weather, village doings, her dog, my cat) and sometimes when I left she'd put on her mackintosh (however sunny the day) to come outside and wave me away. I see her standing there yet and treasure the memory; but it saddens me too because I shall never see her like again.

Pat Barr.